NATCHEZ — Downtown Natchez will feel like Christmas in July Thursday, as volunteers wearing Santa hats will plead to make Christmas brighter than ever this season.

Volunteers from the Natchez: City of Lights committee and the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce will collect money from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday where Main and Commerce streets intersect.

But this fundraising effort isn’t the first step in lighting up Natchez. Twenty wreaths and four lighted skyline wreaths are waiting in storage for the holiday season to arrive.

Businesses and individuals have sponsored decorations to defray costs.

The money raised Thursday will be used to purchase more decorations to give downtown Natchez a cohesive Christmas look.

Debbie Hudson, Chamber of Commerce president, said organizers are hoping to raise enough money to purchase a new base for the downtown Christmas tree.

“What we have now with just the barricades isn’t the most attractive,” she said. “What we are doing will be like a Christmas drum.”

The names of anyone donating $300 or more will be listed as sponsors for the tree base.

Other money will be used to put lights and decorations on the bluff.

And while, the lights and greenery will make the area more eye catching, the biggest benefit of having a brighter Christmas should be felt in the pocketbook, Program Director René Adams said.

“People of all ages and from all walks of life enjoy Christmas lights,” Adams said. “So if we can do something to bring them here and they are spending money here that benefits everyone.”

Lighting up Natchez is a great way to bring tourism back in December, a time which is historically slow for tourism, Adams said. And with people comes money.

“Every $1 taken in turns over 12 times in a town,” Adams said. “So as a shop owner, if I can get 10 or 15 more people in, that is an additional $100 to $150 for my shop, and it just goes from there.”

And businesses are ready to reap the benefits, Hudson said.

“The businesses, particularly Thursday through Friday, have all said they were going to stay open,” Hudson said. “They are excited about the potential this has.”

One city that has been lighting up Christmas for 40 years, Natchitoches, La., has certainly benefited from a bright Christmas. But Hudson said, after talking with officials in Natchitoches, Natchez has more to offer visitors.

She said because of that, lighting Natchez could be bigger than lighting Natchitoches.

“Here, we are an easy place to get to for people wanting to make shorter trips,” Hudson said. “And there is much more to do in one place here.”

And this year, there will be more to do than ever since the City of Lights Committee Co-Chair Regina Charboneau started working early in the year to compile a calendar of events for the season. The goal is to have an activity each day of the Christmas season and music at the Christmas tree each day.

Committee Co-Chair Ginger Hyland said the committee is focusing on lighting up both Franklin and Main streets, but she encouraged home and business owners to participate.

“Already, Monmouth and Dunleith have agreed to do more than usual,” she said. “We hope business owners will light up their rooflines and decorate their windows.”

The committee has planned to have an activity every day this year, from Nov. 27 to Jan. 3.

“We are bringing in a designer to do a seminar on window design, we plan to have caroling every night by the Christmas tree and more,” Hyland said. “Natchez is a special city and we want to bring Christmas back.”